The invention relates to a submersible motor for the drive of a submersible pump.
Such submersible motors are designed as electric motors and comprise a rotor with a rotor shaft, which must be mounted in the motor housing in the radial as well as axial direction. With the drive of a pump, in particular of a centrifugal pump assembly, mainly axial forces occur in a defined axial direction in operation. The main thrust bearing is arranged in this direction, in order to accommodate axial forces which act on the rotor shaft or the rotor.
In order to permit an automatic, exact alignment of the thrust bearing surfaces in a plane normal to the rotation axis, it is known to centrally support the stationary part of the thrust bearing on a ball. A pivoting in all directions is possible on the ball. Moreover, the central ball may be adjusted in the axial direction, in order to be able to exactly set the position of the thrust bearing and thus the position of the rotor shaft. The stationary part of the thrust bearing must be adequately stiff and thus also dimensioned in a large manner, for the force transmission from the thrust bearing surfaces to the mentioned ball.